Lausanne Diamond League — Noah Lyles In Rare Company

LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND, July 05—Usain Bolt. Yohan Blake. Michael Johnson. They are now the only three men to stand above Noah Lyles on the all-time world 200 list. The 21-year-old Florida native sped to a lifetime best of 19.50 at the Athletissima meet in what was arguably the best Diamond League affair of the year so far. On a night of perfect conditions in the packed-out Stade de la Olympique Pontaise, Lyles’ 200m run was one of four meet records.

The American, contesting his second half-lapper of the year following a narrow 19.72 defeat to Michael Norman in Rome four weeks prior, was drawn in friendly lane 7 and had a slight lead over Andre De Grasse at halfway, reached in 10.2. He then started to pull away and charged through the line in 19.50 in a race where three other men—Alex Quiñónez (Ecuadorian Record 19.87 from lane 8) and the Canadian pair of De Grasse (19.92) and Aaron Brown (19.95 PR)—finished inside 20 seconds. It was the fastest time in the world since Bolt’s gold medal-winning run at the ’12 Olympics. It also broke the 19.58 meet record that Bolt had set earlier that year.

“The track here is burning up,” said Lyles. “I know I’m running exactly how my coach wants me to run. It was a good, well-executed race. It was about getting out strong.”

Lyles Now No. 4 On The All-Time 200 List

Coming into Lausanne, Noah Lyles was tied for No. 8 on the all-time world list with his 19.65 set in Monaco last July. Now, only 3 men are ahead of him. The all-time top 10:

Mark

Athlete

Date

1.

19.19

Usain Bolt (Jamaica)

8/20/09

2.

19.26

Yohan Blake (Jamaica)

9/16/11

3.

19.32

Michael Johnson (US)

8/01/96

4.

19.50

Noah Lyles (US)

7/05/19

5.

19.53

Walter Dix (US)

9/16/11

6.

19.57

Justin Gatlin (US)

6/28/15

7.

19.58

Tyson Gay (US)

5/30/09

8.

19.63

Xavier Carter (US)

7/11/06

9.

19.65

Wallace Spearmon (US)

9/28/06

10.

19.68

Frank Fredericks (Namibia)

8/01/96

Just minutes before Lyles stepped on to the track, Timothy Cheruiyot had set the stadium alight with a thrilling run in the 1500. Aided by a pacemaker, the world silver medalist passed through 800m in 1:49.7 and had a lead of more than a second over the rest of the field as he reached the bell. He maintained his advantage to the finish, clocking a world-leading 3:28.77 to take almost a second off the meeting record. The prodigious Jakob Ingebrigtsen, still just 18, produced an impressive final lap to take 2nd in a European Junior (U20) record of 3:30.16. Ayanleh Souleiman was 3rd in 3:30.79.

At about the same time that Lyles and Cheruiyot were producing fireworks on the track, the men’s vault was reaching an exciting climax. Sam Kendricks and Piotr Lisek had been tied for the lead after both cleared all their bars—5 for the Pole, 6 for the American—on their first attempts, breaking the meet record at 19-6¼ (5.95). The bar moved to a world-leading 19-8½ (6.01) and the pair recorded their first failures of the evening, both missing three times. Now in a tie-break, the bar remained at 6.01 for one further attempt. Lisek took it and was successful, setting a Polish Record and moving to =No. 12 on the all-time world list in the process. Kendricks opted against taking his jump, effectively handing Lisek the victory.

After winning the women’s 100 in 10.74, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce claimed that motherhood has made her a better and more determined athlete. The 32-year-old Jamaican, who gave birth to a son in ’17, looked every bit as dominant as she did when winning her many World and Olympic titles, finishing comfortably ahead of European champion Dina Asher-Smith (10.91) and African champion Marie-Josée Ta Lou (10.93). The winning time was just 0.02 shy of Marion Jones’ MR set back in ’98, but SAFP equaled another one of Jones’ records as she now owns 13 sub-10.8s.

One of the biggest surprises of the night came not from an event winner but a runner-up. As Salwa Eid Naser approached the homestraight of the women’s 400 half a second ahead of the field, it looked as though the Bahraini sprinter was on her way to another dominant DL win. But the world silver medalist soon found herself sprinting desperately for the line as Niger’s fast-finishing Aminatou Seyni produced a storming run down the stretch. Naser just about managed to hold off her rival, but it took a meet record to do so. Naser’s 49.17 improved on the standard of 49.45 set back in ’96 by Marie-José Pérec. Seyni was rewarded with a huge lifetime best of 49.19, moving into the all-time top 20.

The men’s 5000m was the most dramatic event of the night but—as far as Hagos Gebrhiwet was concerned, anyway—for all the wrong reasons. The race set off at a decent pace with 2000m reached just inside 5:10. The tempo then dropped with 3000m covered in 7:51 and chances of an improvement on the 12:55.23 meet record looked to be disappearing fast. The field bunched together in the closing kilometers with Gebrhiwet, Paul Chelimo, Selemon Barega, Telahun Haile and Yomif Kejelcha all close to the front but reluctant to lead.

Gebrhiwet darted to the front with about 700m left to go, but as he ramped up the pace it soon became clear that it wasn’t a long run for home; he had miscounted his laps. He covered that lap in 54.5 seconds and crossed the line in celebration with the clock reading 12:00 but still hadn’t realized his error. It was only when Kejelcha came past him on the bend that Gebrhiwet figured out his mistake and rejoined the pack. Kejelcha went on to win in 13:00.56 with Barega (13:01.99) coming through for 2nd and Haile taking 3rd (13:03.09). Running on weary legs, Gebrhiwet finished down in 10th but still managed a respectable 13:09.59.

Elsewhere, Mariya Lasitskene continued her domination of the high jump, winning with 6-7½ (2.02). Caterine Ibargüen produced a fifth-round leap of 48-10¼ (14.89) to move from 4th to 1st in the women’s triple jump, and Shamier Little won the 400H for the second year in succession, clocking 53.73.

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